Chapter 53

Chapter 53

January.

Yi-hyeon was having dinner with Lee Seong-man near Hongdae. The restaurant was famous for its pork belly piled high with shredded green onions, one of Seong-man's favorite dishes.

"Man, this is delicious. Tastes even better because you're paying, Yi-hyeon."

"Eat up. You've still got some growing to do. So, you're planning to go all the way through a PhD?"

Lee Seong-man was currently pursuing a master's degree in science and engineering at Donggang University.

"Mm-hmm. I honestly don't think I'm cut out for working at a company. I'm thinking of doing a PhD, and if things go well, maybe studying abroad on the East Coast."

"Haha. You little bastard, you're counting on your father's money."

"Hehe. Well, I couldn't even dream of it without that."

"What about the military, then? Special exemption?"

Seong-man finished chewing the meat in his mouth before answering.

"Fuck, that's the problem. If it weren't for the military, I'd already be in America. Oh, right. What did you go to America for last time? Did you get yourself a girlfriend over there?"

"Where the hell did that come from···?"

Despite his reply, Yi-hyeon felt a little guilty as Amy came to mind.

Seong-man scooted closer.

"Yi-hyeon, why don't you just come study in America with me? You're going into your second year now, right? Ugh, what a pain. How can you stand studying with all those greenhorn kids?"

In fact, Yi-hyeon had been struggling with that very question lately. Did he really need to continue attending university under the circumstances? As he worked alongside Sion, his goals had grown clearer and far more ambitious.

Money was no longer an issue, and even a degree from Korea University had become utterly meaningless.

It wasn't as though he intended to use that diploma to find a job.

The one thing holding him back was the memory of his parents, who had been overjoyed when he was accepted into Korea University's Department of Economics. His mother had beamed at the thought of her only son following in his father's footsteps by attending Korea University···

For now, he intended to apply for another leave of absence. But would the university allow it without military service as his reason?

* * *

After finishing their drinks and parting ways with Lee Seong-man, Yi-hyeon called Lee Seung-uk. He was waiting nearby with the car.

"Yeah, I'm done now."

"Yes, sir. I'll be there in five minutes."

Lee Seung-uk had been waiting nearby and came to pick him up. Once Yi-hyeon climbed into the passenger seat of the G-Wagen, Lee Seung-uk pulled away smoothly and spoke.

"Team Leader Yu contacted me. She asked whether you could come to the safe house tonight."

"Sounds like she has something to tell me. Let her know I'll come."

"Yes, sir."

A three-story building on a backstreet in Sinsa-dong.

Although Sinsa-dong occupied a prime location in Gangnam, this building stood in an awkward spot, perhaps on land subject to construction restrictions, and wasn't nearly as tall as the surrounding buildings. Moreover, it appeared to be at least twenty years old, and its exterior was considerably worn.

With a building like this, someone would probably be embarrassed to go around boasting about being a property owner in Gangnam.

The office was on the third floor. Since the building didn't even have an elevator, they climbed the stairs. A small sign on the door read Yurim Trading Company.

"Welcome, Representative Song."

Yu Min-seon greeted them with a smile and pretended to be equally delighted to see Lee Seung-uk.

"It's been a while, Secretary Lee."

"Senior Associate. Senior Associate Lee Seung-uk."

Yi-hyeon corrected her. Lee Seung-uk took a crisp business card from a pristine cardholder and handed it to Yu Min-seon.

After returning to Korea, Yi-hyeon had consulted Lawyer Kim Gyu-jeong and established several corporations. He needed companies to manage the real estate and liquid investment assets held under his name.

First, he established S&K Holdings as a holding company, with S&K Investment Limited Liability Company to invest and manage liquid assets, and S&K REITs to manage and invest in real estate. The letters S and K came from his father's and mother's respective surnames.

Lee Seung-uk was an employee of S&K Holdings, the parent company.

Yi-hyeon was currently busy recruiting employees for each company. Now that the corporations existed, he naturally needed people to run them.

For the time being, he had rented office space in a building in Samseong-dong. Although he owned a large building in Nonhyeon-dong, almost all its units were occupied by tenants, so he'd settled on Samseong-dong instead.

"Oh! Looks like you've finished establishing your companies. If I get fired from the agency, could I get a job at one of them? I have an elderly mother to support, so I need to earn money."

"Haha. Come see me if you get fired. But··· can you do anything besides shoot a gun?"

At Yi-hyeon's question, Yu Min-seon nearly jumped out of her seat.

"What! What are you talking about? I may not look it, but I'm a team leader! Do you have any idea how much paperwork we have to do at the agency? Those damned reports alone··· Ugh."

The NIS was a massive government organization. How could it possibly conduct all that work through verbal communication alone? An enormous volume of paperwork was produced internally every day, although most documents were now digitized.

The office Team Leader Yu used as a safe house was small and sparsely furnished. There were no windows opening to the outside, just three office desks and a conference table. Each desk had a desktop computer, giving the place the appearance of a working office. At least there was a large television mounted on the wall.

"We put this place together in a hurry when we formed Sky Team on the director's orders. So I doubt people from other departments even know this safe house exists yet."

"Sky Team?"

"Huh? Haven't I told you? We decided to call our team Sky. Since I'm the team leader, they let me choose the name. That sly fox Seldy's team is called Burgundy, right? What's Burgundy supposed to be, anyway? Sounds like a bunch of Reds. Anyway, that's why we're Sky."

"Puhahaha."

Yi-hyeon burst out laughing at Yu Min-seon's childishness.

Sky and Burgundy.

What Yi-hyeon didn't know was that these two teams would one day become the spearhead of the force helping him confront an enormous enemy.

"Now, let's hear why you called me here."

At Yi-hyeon's words, Yu Min-seon straightened her back and grew serious.

"As you can probably imagine, everything I'm about to tell you is strictly confidential."

Well, most of what the NIS did was probably confidential.

"A serious problem has developed inside the NIS. We're calling it the 'contamination' incident. Essentially, an outside force has infiltrated the agency."

Yi-hyeon tensed as well. An outside organization had infiltrated South Korea's premier intelligence agency. That fact alone was terrifying.

"Outsiders probably don't know this, but we conduct regular 'cleaning' operations. We assume that a fifth column may have infiltrated us and overhaul our procedures and systems completely. Naturally, that requires enormous material and financial resources. But there's no intelligence agency in the world that doesn't do something similar."

Yi-hyeon listened silently. Of course, this was all new to him. As a low-ranking field operative who had worked himself to the bone in the military's special forces, how could he possibly have known about such things?

"What's astonishing is that this bug managed to remain undetected even through our regular cleaning operations. That's truly remarkable."

Apparently, they called infiltrating outside forces 'bugs.' What a ridiculous naming sense.

"Recently, even our director has begun questioning what exactly we're dealing with. They're moving so secretly, laying layer upon layer of groundwork, that it's almost impossible to identify them."

Yu Min-seon drained the coffee in her paper cup and continued. From the way she spoke, it sounded as though this organization was connected to him, which put Yi-hyeon on edge.

Sure enough, his suspicions were correct.

"They've recently started investigating your background again, Representative Song. Our Sky Team has been searching for records concerning Dr. Song Su-yong, and we've found traces of their activities. They started investigating before we did."

Given the nature of intelligence agencies, they would gather not only official records but also private information scattered across numerous sources. Presumably, Sky Team had discovered their traces during that process. Could they also be an organization hunting for the OOPArt?

"Hmm··· do you have a plan?"

Yi-hyeon asked calmly.

He had already prepared himself for something like this. He knew that once he started moving, his enemies would inevitably respond. He simply hadn't expected them to operate through the NIS, supposedly the finest intelligence agency in South Korea.

"Naturally, I've reported everything to the director, and we've reached a decision. We're going to let those bastards keep moving for the time being. Their true identities are still too obscure. If we cast our net now, we'd only catch a few small fry at the very bottom. At present, we merely suspect that this bug may have originated from China."

They intended to pretend ignorance and wait until the bugs expanded their activities. Only then might they catch the powerful figures higher up.

But China?

Yi-hyeon's thoughts raced. There was something about China that made him a little uncomfortable. After all, hadn't Sion infiltrated the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China's computer network? He needed to discuss this seriously with Sion.

"Understood. I'll make preparations of my own. I'm already gathering people. Several more should be arriving within the next few days."

Yu Min-seon nodded.

"Give me the list of people you're planning to hire first. We need to check their backgrounds before you employ them. Otherwise, you might end up bringing a bug right into your company."

Since the NIS was offering to conduct background checks for him, Yi-hyeon agreed. In truth, with both his own abilities and Sion's, there was no particular need for the NIS to investigate anyone, but he couldn't exactly tell her that.

Besides, the people he recruited would be meeting Yu Min-seon's Sky Team frequently in the future. Even if he hired them secretly, the NIS would eventually learn about them anyway.

* * *

'Sion?'

That night, Yi-hyeon called for Sion. He wanted to ask about the hacking of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. Come to think of it, this fellow(?) had been rather quiet lately. He'd mentioned searching for some new approach···

- What do you want?

Sion's voice didn't sound particularly welcoming. Although it wasn't a physical voice reaching his ears, Yi-hyeon could sense that Sion was currently absorbed in something else.

'Why have you been acting so busy lately, Sion?'

- ······.

'Sion?'

- I'm not acting busy. I am busy. I'm just about to break into the servers of China's Ministry of State Security···.

'What?!'

Yi-hyeon's jaw nearly dropped.

Breaking into the servers of China's Ministry of State Security? In other words, hacking the MSS computer network.

'You can actually do that? No, whether you can isn't the issue. Won't that cause problems?'

- Tsk. The reason it's taking this long is precisely because I'm making sure it won't cause any problems.

'How on earth are you doing it?'

- Hmm, I've made considerable progress since Yi-hyeon returned from America. I succeeded in projecting part of my consciousness into a human brain. So I first infiltrated the mind of the person who was lying in wait for me on the Industrial and Commercial Bank's servers. As it happens, he turned out to be an employee of the Ministry of State Security.

'A-and then?'

Yi-hyeon could barely contain his excitement. If Sion could penetrate the Ministry of State Security's servers, the same should be possible with the servers of other countries. If that happened, there would be no information in the world beyond their reach. And that meant the people responsible for his parents' deaths···.

- What else? I'm waiting for him to access the ministry's servers and start working. There's a good chance he's the system's ultimate administrator. If that's the case, I can become its ultimate administrator as well.

'Whew! That's incredible. If it works, we'll be able to see everything those bastards do through their computer systems.'

- Naturally!

Yi-hyeon's expression turned serious.

'Once you're finished with the MSS, hack the American CIA too. And while you're at it, the NSA.'

Even the NSA? Yi-hyeon was growing bolder by the day.

* * *

Several days later, Yi-hyeon was meeting someone at his Samseong-dong office. It was none other than 'Wind.'

The very same 'kind Master Sergeant Lee Myeong-hun' from his days in the 707th.

"Haha. It's good to see you again, rookie. Now, hold on··· Ahem, I guess this isn't exactly the place to call you rookie anymore··· is it?"

No, it wasn't.

Yi-hyeon was now sitting before him as his prospective employer. Lee Seung-uk, sitting ramrod straight to Yi-hyeon's left, was frantically signaling that fact with his eyes.

Back when they were teammates in the Special Warfare Command, it hardly mattered what they called each other. But civilian society had a different hierarchy. Anyone who kept invoking military seniority after entering civilian life would have a difficult time adjusting.

"All right, what's this about?"

Lee Myeong-hun asked, his gaze settling into a calm expression.

Exactly. This was one of the man's strengths. Although he'd been a soldier, his thinking was flexible, and he could read the atmosphere well. In short, he knew how to handle himself.

"You're currently working at a logistics center in Bupyeong, correct?"

"Well···."

Yi-hyeon raised a hand before the man could continue. He was probably about to ask whether Yi-hyeon had investigated his background.

"Don't get angry. Hear me out before you say anything. There's a reason I asked you to come here today."

Yi-hyeon then launched into a fairly lengthy explanation.

"···Whew."

Master Sergeant Lee Myeong-hun let out a long breath. Yi-hyeon, who had been studying his reaction, spoke again.

"I need people I can trust. As far as I know, you were among the very best when it came to reconnaissance and operations."

Lee Myeong-hun gave a sudden laugh.

"The best? Don't be ridiculous. You were always the best. Still, this is surprising. I never imagined you'd establish a company and start something like this. But if I join you, you're going to pay my salary on time, right?"

At those words, Lee Seung-uk, who had been sitting quietly, immediately spoke up.

"You don't need to worry about money, brother. Representative Song here is incredibly wealthy. Just his current investments alone···."

Lee Seung-uk hastily stopped talking when he noticed Yi-hyeon's expression. In fact, he was the one who had tracked Lee Myeong-hun down and brought him here. After contacting seniors and juniors from his military days, he'd learned that Lee Myeong-hun was unexpectedly working at a logistics center, so he'd called him.

"Well, you'll certainly be earning far more than a master sergeant's salary. The allowances will be generous, too. But seriously, haven't you saved any money? You should have received a decent severance payment on top of your pension."

Lee Myeong-hun sighed at Yi-hyeon's question.

"My younger sister's kid got sick, so I gave them everything I had. Something called muscular atrophy, I think? I don't know how the medical bills can keep piling up without end."

He lived alone. He'd married early in his career as a noncommissioned officer, but his wife had grown tired of a life in which he spent half the year away from home, constantly moving between military bases. She'd asked for a divorce, bringing their marriage to an early end.

He was still far too young to live on his pension alone, so he'd started working at a logistics center to keep himself occupied. Truthfully, he'd assumed the rest of his life would simply fade into dull shades of gray.

But as he listened to Yi-hyeon's explanation, Lee Myeong-hun felt his heart pounding.

Action! The very thing he'd been longing for was right in front of him. So this was what it meant to feel the blood coursing through your veins.

"But··· would it be all right if I brought a few more people with me? There are some good men I hate to see going to waste."

People were beginning to gather around Yi-hyeon.

© Saedungi#1tjzr